October 21, 2020 — We’re running a lil’ giveaway among our dear Smashing newsletter subscribers, and if you subscribe, you join in the raffle, too! With online workshop tickets, books and an entire collection of 100 Smashing cats in SVG format! We’ll announce the winners in the upcoming issue on Oct. 27, 2020. Meow, join in and good luck! Read more…

October 21, 2020 — There are hundreds of Figma plugins available as of today, yet the Figma plugin search functionality is pretty basic and at times it can be very difficult to find the right plugin for a certain task. Today, Abel Hancock will take you into an in-depth look at several plugins that can speed up your design workflow.

Note: This article is aimed at user interface designers who use Figma on a daily basis. Read more…

October 20, 2020 — We’re talking about TypeScript. What is it, and how can it help us write better JavaScript? Drew McLellan talks to expert Stefan Baumgartner to find out. Read more…

October 19, 2020 — In this article, Aleem Isiaka explains how you can deploy a basic NodeJS application to Heroku, automate and schedule a deployment to run at certain intervals of the day, and use other actions from the Github Actions community. Read more…

October 16, 2020 — It’s time for another monthly update! The best way to get better together is by learning from each other, and what better way is there than to promote new ideas and the way forward for the web industry. A quick peek at our ever-growing guides will show you that we’re dedicated in bringing together a variety of topics that will help us all explore and learn new things. Join us as we share the latest news and highlight the things we have enjoyed reading over the past month. Read more…

October 16, 2020 — Ever had to switch your focus from your editor and to your terminal to see the results of your tests? This article will introduce you to Wallaby.js — a JavaScript productivity tool that supercharges your IDE by allowing you to get real-time feedback on your JavaScript tests in your code editor even before saving the file. You will also learn how to use Wallaby.js for testing React applications.

Note: In order to be able to follow along, you’ll need to be familiar with JavaScript testing and have a working knowledge of building React applications. Read more…

October 15, 2020 — In this tutorial, Chidi Orji is going to show you how to use the Web Worker API to manage time-consuming and UI-blocking tasks in a JavaScript app by building a sample web app that leverages Web Workers. Finally, we’ll end the article by transferring everything to a React application. If you need more insights into this topic, Chidi has included a number of links in the “Further Resources” section to help you get up to speed. Read more…

October 14, 2020 — Netlify Forms is a form handling feature that receives submissions from HTML forms automatically. In this article, Zara Cooper will explain how you could use an Angular reactive form with Netlify Forms. Since Netlify Forms only work when deployed on Netlify, she’ll also illustrate how to deploy your app on Netlify Edge. Read more…

October 13, 2020 — How can you convince your clients to make a faster (and easier) buy-in? Better serving citizens means improving a frustrating website experience — the primary way Californians access necessary services. With the help of a guided design exercise, Kelly Schummer explains how the Design Shopping workflow can help guide you throughout the design phases. Read more…

October 12, 2020 — Forms are an integral part of how users interact with our websites and web applications. Validating the data the user passes through the form is a critical aspect of our jobs as web developers. However, it doesn’t have to be a pain-staking process. In this article, Nefe Emadamerho-Atori will show you how Formik handles the state of the form data, validates the data, and handles form submission. Read more…